The Critical Role of Methodological Pluralism for Policy-Relevant Empirical Marketing Research

Abstract

Research can be characterized in terms of three domains (Brinberg and McGrath 1985): (1) the substantive (the realworld problem of focus in the research), (2) the conceptual (the theoretical representation of some aspect of reality), and (3) the methodological (the approach taken to investigate a realworld problem or test theory). In empirical research, all three domains are usually involved, but researchers may emphasize each to different degrees. A distinguishing feature of research in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing (JPP&M) is that it usually starts with a real-world problem that has important consumer, marketing, and public policy implications (see Martin, Borah, and Scott 2021). Due to its substantive focus, JPP&M articles enjoy an eclectic use of conceptual foundations and methods to explore important real-world problems. In this commentary, we explore JPP&M’s methodological domain by conducting an analysis of recent empirical research and providing insights based on our work.